Camp Cooking...

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
17,453
4,514
What do you guys 'n gals prepare while afield? Breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Any favorites? How much different from what you cook at home?

If it's cool or cold weather, I prefer to cook breakfast & dinner, with a sandwich for lunch, but if it's warm, I'll drop down to cooking only dinner - if that.

Favorite breakfast while camping (thinking Jeep/tent camping here, not backpacking) is about the same as at home: eggs, fruit, and I'll substitute flat bread or tortillas instead of toast. Coffee... Yes...

Favorite dinner afield, is venison backstrap steaks, cooked quickly in the skillet, along with diced peppers & onions - pretty much the same as at home. Sometimes I'll prepare the veggies ahead of time at home, and merely heat them up on the camp stove.

Usually I just cook over either a one-burner MSR white gas backpacking stove, or sometimes an old two burner Coleman white gas stove. Nothing fancy.

Simple dinner for one on a summertime Jeep trip, MSR stove:


Chicken, onion, then wrapped it all in tortillas...

Guy
 
Sounds delicious Guy. What I like to do for dinners is something that I put in packages at home and take with me. Once a fire is going and I have some nice coals, I put these packages on a grate over the coals. Twenty minutes per side and you are eating. No pans to dirty up and not a lot of waste.

1. 2-sheets of foil, one sitting on top of the other. (Once you have one tear open on you and you are then picking your meal up off the bear grass to eat, you will see why 2 is one and 1 is none.)

2. Spray the top sheet with Pam or other similar spray. Put two nice pats of butter on the foil.

3. Make meatballs with hamburger and sausage of some type. If you don't have any bulk game sausage something like Jimmy Dean's or similar works fine. Two burger and one or two sausage meatballs on the foil is about right. Put cut onions, mushrooms, celery, carrots, red and green peppers, and decent bite sized pieces of potato on the foil. Garlic salt and pepper and fold the foil over securely.

4. Place over the nice coals 20 minutes per side. One of these is a meal per person. You can add or take away what you think you want to make it a complete meal for each individual. When you are finished eating the foil is the only waste that you have and other than a dirty fork to wash, you are good to go. Especially if you use heavy duty paper plates to eat on. Those can be burned in the fire when you are finished.

I make these up before I head out and have them in the cooler sitting on top of the ice. Doesn't hurt to put them into large gallon zip-lock bags to keep them from getting wet. They keep on the ice for several days and really hit the spot at the end of the day. There is no food prep and all you have to do is get your fire built. We call these camp stews and man are they good.

David
 
You can't beat a stew cooked up in foil, unless you take the time to fire up a dutch oven. You can also put a couple jalapenos in there for some "snap". I love jalapenos.
 
Breakfast is pretty simple for us, protein drink, fruit(banana) breakfast bars, OJ and pop tarts, cinnamon roll.
Every other morning we'll have breakfast burritos.
The burritos are prepared in advance, frozen and placed in a Dutch oven on top of the wood stove to warm up.
Lunch production is a morning project, a sandwich a couple of power bars, fruit and some snacks for the day.
Dinners are really substantial. I typically make a lasagna, pot roast, jambalaya and meatloaf. The main meals and vegetables are vacuum sealed at home. Dinner is set out in the morning to thaw, first guy back to camp gets the water going. The vacuum sealed bags simply go into the hot water tank, 20 minutes later dinner is ready.
We've been doing dinner this way since 1991. The three important tricks we've learned, double seal the bags; use the smaller quart bags and put an individual portion in each bag, cook your pasta al Dante.
I know some guys are really into camp cooking, it is a true art form.
 
Good stuff. We generally go easy with instant oatmeal for breakfast with coffee made in a press to save mess. We try to be up and out before light so making a fire and cooking breakfast is out until the last day when we pack up.

We have done pre-made burritos, but decided even that was too much work. There is also a story about some moose burritos that ruined a stalk one deer hunt when they suddenly forced their way out of this hunter. Can you say pee-ew?

For lunch it is sandwiches and fruit. I do keep sausage and block cheese in a cooler on the truck with drinks if we are out and about away from camp with the truck.

Dinner is still easy with either pre cooked meals dumped in a sauce pan or meat grilled over the burn barrel. Often canned vegetables and camp fries will be included.

I really like dutch oven cooking, but rarely is anyone in camp long enough to tend the oven. We really need a camp *itch, but haven't found one yet that will put up with us, even without the moose burritos.
 
Breakfast, none
Lunch, Granola Bars
Dinner, anything from stroganoff to shrimp, or steaks. Have cast iron skillet, Dutch oven, and various other cooking apparatuses needed. Finish with a good wine or select beer.

Vince


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top